As the price of extravagant summer flowers rises with the temperature, consider a cooler alternative.

Moss is inexplicably tied with the idea of summer. Its softness breaks your fall as you run laughingly in the woods, chased by all creatures real and supernatural. Moss leads you to safety and serves as a beacon on camping trips on the verge of going awry and sea moss peels beneath your probing fingers as you lay lazily on the beach running out of things to do and see with yourself but thoroughly enjoying the feeling. Yet, moss doesn’t seem to ever become a part of your summer wedding. Maybe it’s got a bad reputation as a dirty lichen, but don’t worry about it dirtying your linens. Moss is a pretty, eco-friendly and cost effective idea for the most beautiful of summer weddings.

What moss symbolizes is lush excess. It carpets the grounds of shady woods, soaks up the rainwater after a week’s worth of thunderstorms and it blankets the corners of sharp rocks. When it is doing its best to clean up and look after you, why should you leave it out of the festivities of your big day? Don’t just think moss is for outdoor weddings though, although the idea of using a mossy knoll as an altar or having a wedding in the clearing of the woods sheltered by the moss all around you is to die for. Moss can be brought inside in many ways or if moss doesn’t grow in the spot you have chosen for your outdoor wedding don’t even think about it, you’ve just got to import it. Obviously one of the first and foremost places you just have to use moss is in your wedding bouquet. Summer is an outpouring of flowers so when you are sorting through peonies and roses just remember there is a cheaper alternative and one that every other bride has overlooked. Moss is a perfect addition to a bouquet for the alternative bride who wants her wedding to be unique and different. That becomes all the more important during the summer season as weddings are prolific. Guests may have attended as many as three or four weddings in a single month and with a mossy bouquet, they’re going to be lining up to try to catch it instead of thinking of the entire tradition as so blase. Of course you should and have more than just moss in your bouquet, it can be a sobering match with brightly colored sunflowers and it can tone down the noise that a giant dinner plate dahlia can make, in groups or by itself.

In short moss is a great way to beat the heat!